1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to integrated-circuit packages and, more particularly, to techniques for cooling integrated-circuit packages.
2. Prior Art
Previously, power and ground planes have been added to molded-plastic and hermetically-sealed integrated-circuit packages to improve the electrical performance of these packages. The added power and ground planes provided improved electrical performance by lowering the inductance of the power and ground leads. Additional power and ground planes are provided by using multi-layer leadframes and/or multi-layer printed-circuit-board substrates.
To improve the thermal performance of an integrated-circuit package, heatsinks are added either internally or externally to the packages. Adding a heatsink to an electrically enhanced package, as described above, provides an integrated-circuit package with both improved electrical performance and with improved thermal performance.
These prior packaging techniques for improving electrical and/or thermal performance tend to be expensive, consume large amounts of production time, and may present reliability problems due to thermal mismatches. Prior art thermally conductive heatsink materials, such as copper, aluminum, alumina nitride, and multi-layer printed-circuit boards, are costly.
The need has arisen for an integrated-circuit package configuration which incorporates a cost effective heatsink or heat spreader material into the designs of plastic or cavity-type packages for integrated-circuits.